Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Cairns for raising this important question. It was during my first term as Taoiseach that we ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. We are not a country that just ratifies a convention and then moves on. We are a country that makes sure we have done what we need to do before we ratify a convention and that is what we did on this occasion. It was not straightforward but we got it done. I want to acknowledge in particular the work of the former Deputy Finian McGrath, as Minister of State with responsibility for disability during that Government in leading the charge to make sure we ratified that convention, which we did.

On disability services I know there is a lot of shortcomings. I would not deny that for a second. In some areas we have made a lot of progress, and particularly in education. Take for example the whole area of special education. There is now probably 15,000 or 20,000 special needs assistants now whereas there would only have been a few hundred at one point in the past. There is now a dedicated Minister of State with a dedicated budget for doing that, under the Minister of State, Deputy Josepha Madigan. There are additional special classes and additional special schools. I really think that on any objective basis we have made a lot of progress when it comes to education and also on social welfare. As the Deputy knows, there have been increased payments and increased supports to enable people with disabilities to enter the workforce and to facilitate employers to enable them to do so. We have done work around travel passes and medical cards reassuring people that if they take up work and they have a disability they will not lose their travel pass and will not lose their medical card.

In a lot of areas when it comes to services there are enormous shortcomings and we all know this from our constituency practices and from the people we meet who tell us about the delays they are facing either to get an assessment of need or to get the therapies they need. A lot of that is down to the non availability of the staff we need to do it and those who have the skills to do the work that needs to be done. We have provided an extra €195 million in the budget for 2024. The roadmap to improve access to children's disability network team services CDNTs was published only three weeks ago and there is a big focus on recruitment and retention of the staff we need to provide services that people disabilities need. There is a whole new grade of assistant therapy grades being funded in 2024, which we believe will help. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, informs me that we are undertaking a review of the steps needed to allow for the optional protocol to be ratified. It remains Government policy to do that during this Government's term of office.

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